LC-506
Jason White 5/5/2006
W2 2.1.1
TE
As proposed by Charles McCathieNevile in commenting on the November 2005
working draft, the term "textual interface" should be used instead of
"keyboard interface". Some software interfaces do not accept keystroke input
directly, but instead receive character input; they are not "keyboard
interfaces" as defined in the glossary
Proposed Change
"Substitute \""textual interface\"" for \""keyboard interface\"", and define
\""textual interface\"" as an interface used by software to receive
characters or keystroke input. Under this definition, keystroke input is
included; thus compatibility with a keyboard interface would satisfy the
success criterion, as would compatibility with any software mechanism
capable of receiving character input, whether from a keyboard or any other
kind of input device.
"
Proposed Resolution - from Team A
Not Accepted
Related to old issue 1836
<http://trace.wisc.edu/bugzilla_wcag/show_bug.cgi?id=1836>
This was discussed on January 12 teleconference and it was decided then to
keep the current phrasing. The rationale is as follows:
The term keyboard interface here is use to refer to the API that the user
agent
uses to get its keystrokes from. The keystrokes include up and down arrows,
function keys, and other keystrokes that are not text. The reason we use the
phrase is to cover keyboard emulators (such as mouse or pen keyboards) and
devices that don't have native keyboards (pda's) but accept them as
accessories
(via their keyboard interface). This language also matches a number of other
accessibility standards and is better for harmonization.
Note also that definition of Keyboard Interface now reads:
keyboard interface
interface used by software to obtain keystroke input
Note 1: Allows users to provide keystroke input to programs even if the
native technology does not contain a keyboard.
Example: A touch screen PDA has a keyboard interface built into its
operating system as well as a connector for external keyboards. Applications
on the PDA can use the interface to obtain keyboard input either from an
external keyboard or from other applications that provide simulated keyboard
output, such as handwriting interpreters or speech to text applications with
"keyboard emulation" functionality.
Note 2: Operation of the application (or parts of the application) through a
keyboard operated mouse emulator, such as MouseKeys, does not qualify as
operation through a keyboard interface because operation of the program is
through its pointing device interface - not through its keyboard interface.
No change to document.